About the EWC, registration, the Professional Learning Passport and accreditation.
The Education Workforce Council (EWC) is the independent professional regulator for the education workforce in Wales. With over 85,000 registrants, it is Wales’ largest regulatory body and has the widest register of education practitioners in the world. The principal aims of the EWC are to:
- contribute to improving the standards of teaching and the quality of learning in Wales
- maintain and improve standards of professional conduct amongst teachers and persons who support teaching and learning in Wales
- to safeguard the interests of learners, parents and the general public and maintain public trust and confidence in the education workforce
Registration
One of the EWC’s main functions is to maintain a Register of Education Practitioners. Following a change in the law, from May 2023 the following practitioners must register with the EWC:
- maintained school teacher
- further education teacher
- independent school teacher
- independent special post-16 institution teacher
- work-based learning practitioner
- youth worker
- maintained school learning support worker
- further education support worker
- independent school learning support worker
- independent special post-16 institution learning support worker
- youth support worker
You will find information about the changes in the links section.
Once registered with the EWC, practitioners are required to pay an annual registration fee to the EWC. You may need to register in more than one category, depending on the work you do or intend to do, and some specific criteria. You will only have to pay one fee.
The fee payable is set by Welsh Ministers and remains one of the lowest in the UK for professional registration. It is subsidised by the Welsh Government to keep it as low as possible for practitioners, as follows:
£45
- maintained school teacher
- independent school teacher
- further education teacher
- independent special post-16 institution teacher
- work-based learning practitioner
- youth worker
£15
- maintained school learning support worker
- further education support worker
- independent school learning support worker
- independent special post-16 institution learning support worker
- youth support worker
The impact assessments show how the changes support the work to review the current arrangements for regulating independent schools in Wales, and in carrying out recommendations put forward by the Children’s Commissioner for Wales and the Interim Youth Work Board.
Professional Learning Passport (PLP)
The Professional Learning Passport is a fully bilingual and flexible online tool that is available to all EWC registrants.
Your PLP is packed with features that are designed to support you in capturing, reflecting upon, sharing and planning your learning with the ultimate aim of improving your practice.
Your PLP belongs to you: it is confidential and portable. As long as you’re registered with the EWC, you will have access to any content you have created in your PLP.
Accreditation
Accreditation of ITE programmes is a quality assurance process. Under the Education Workforce Council (Accreditation of Initial Teacher Training) (Additional Functions) Order 2017, The EWC has a statutory responsibility to:
- accredit programmes of Initial Teacher Education (ITE)
- monitor compliance of accredited programmes against Welsh Government criteria
- withdraw accreditation of programmes
All ITE programmes offered by partnerships in Wales are assessed, evaluated, and monitored against the Welsh Government’s criteria for the accreditation of ITE programmes in Wales. This is carried out by the EWC’s ITE Accreditation Board.